The John Kerwin Show was originally formatted as a late-night talk show. Beginning in 2001, the show has featured guests including Cloris Leachman, Bruce Dern, Robert Forster, and many others.. The Kerwin show was produced regularly for 7 seasons, 2010-2016, with sporadic production in prior years. In August, 2007, Kerwin, along with then producer Rob Baker met with NBC's head of late night and prime time programming Rick Ludwin and was a contender for the position then to be vacated by Conan O'Brien in 2009 as he left NBC's "Late Night" to host The Tonight Show. The position was eventually given to Jimmy Fallon. He also was considered to host a talk show on TV Land but lost hosting duties to ALF. In July, 2010, The John Kerwin Show began regular production and started airing on JLTV nationwide. Starting in 2015, John became a featured columnist for Tae Kwon Do Times, Stand Up Comedy Magazine and Puretimes Entertainment Magazine. In 2017, Kerwin reformatted the program as The John Kerwin Kids Show, featuring celebrity kids. The Kids Show made it through one production season only, in 2017. Reruns continued to air on JLTV until it ended its run in September 2019.
Notable episodes
For the show's 50th episode in January, 2006, Kerwin's guest was actor David Carradine, whose appearance turned out to be the actor's last late night talk show appearance before his death. The appearance by Carradine and Kerwin's achievement earning a Black Belt in Taekwondo prompted Tae Kwon DoTimes Magazine to feature Kerwin on the cover of its September 2015 issue. On December, 2006 host John Kerwin and the show received a special Commendation from Los Angeles MayorAntonio Villaraigosa on the occasion of the show's 6th anniversary on the air and 60th episode. For the May, 2008 episode featuring guests Ed Asner, Kevin Sorbo and Keaton Simons, a special monologue was prepared featuring comedy contributed by writers from each former Tonight Show host: Bill Dana, Dick Cavett, Tony DeSena and Marvin Silbermintz. The March 2012 episode, Jonathan Winters was featured as a guest; this was the show's 100th episode and was covered by The LA Weekly and The Santa Monica Daily Press. Last talk show interview: Jonathan Winters. On Episode 110, Kerwin interviewed The Harlem Globetrotters at the Honda Center and played basketball against them as part of a remote shoot for the show.
Awards
The John Kerwin Show has won over 15 TV awards including the Telly Award, the Wave Award, the AEGIS Award, and the Hermes Award.
